1MG FlippingBooks
Australian agricultural manufacturing: state of the art
Website Editor
It’s a breezy winter day in Toowoomba but the sun is out. Both the weather and this town are invigorating. Positioned between the great expanses of grazing land in Queensland and the country’s biggest broadacre farming state of NSW, Toowoomba is a dynamic hub for farming ideas and manufacturing.
I’m visiting with Michael O’Connor who, along with brother Jim, took over Gessner Industries five years ago and has roughly doubled the 40-year-old company’s turnover since. With Michael’s multi-decade experience in agricultural manufacturing, I’m in the right place to ask questions about what it takes to compete and grow as an Aussie manufacturer in today’s increasingly competitive environment.
I’m convinced that Australia could and should be some kind of world leader in manufacturing within agriculture for a range of reasons, not least our history, farm productivity and education levels. I’m a little hesitant, given the state of manufacturing overall in Australia, but Michael takes a more tempered view.
“Yes, there is increasing competition and import activity, though we have the capacity to capitalise on all sorts of niche areas and can export, specialise and adapt,” says Michael. “There are a lot of areas we should be tackling.”
He believes the farmer and the market itself are useful guides, though perhaps not often enough examined carefully.
“Getting a business like ours right comes down to listening to the farmer and interacting – it’s a conversation, an exchange,” he says. “Sometimes we need to guide as well as listen – our job for the farmer is to de-complicate things.
“And this is where a top design and engineering team is absolutely essential – you need quality draughtsmen to work an idea through. And I continue to tell the farmer that we need to keep the simplicity in it.”
Michael’s mantra on simplicity may seem at odds with the company’s reputation for new thinking, but there is no rule that innovation must represent layers of new complexity. This attitude may well be responsible for Gessner’s success in recent years in export to markets in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Indonesia and elsewhere in Africa and Asia.
The core of Michael’s engineering philosophy is to identify real needs, to understand what farmers do – precisely – and why they do it. The result, he believes, is robust, simple products which will sell to the expected volume and gain a reputation as word of mouth travels.
Michael points out that there will always be customers with special needs. Adaptation of machinery ought to be a regular skill set as he sees it, and sometimes a full-on collaboration will result in a new product. With imports on the rise, this is potentially a steady source of income for the Australian manufacturer – underlining the need for strong engineering skills.
“Collaboration with the farmer is of course one of the tenets of doing well, but this is about jointly identifying real needs and getting the business model right,” says Michael. “Where is the main market? We’d rather build and sell 100 units of an implement or machine at $50,000 than five units at $100,000.”
Notably, such thinking does not preclude coming up with fresh collaborative ideas which can lead to a new product line.
“We worked with one farmer on a new approach to a pasture maintenance implement which will now become a permanent member of our range,” says Michael. “This too has potential for variations.”
In closing our conversation, I ask Michael for his thoughts on the Australian agricultural manufacturing industry and where we can go from here.
“We do not have the luxury of a mass market, but we have a great farming laboratory here and many of the world’s best farmers,” he says. “We should never underestimate the power of early adopters, and we have them. With ingenuity and business rigour there is no reason why we can’t succeed – there is a huge opportunity.”
NEWS
Prodoz, a Proudly Australian and family-owned agribusiness, based in Melbourne, is strengthening its positions as national/international leader in advanced crop – science solutions through a growing portfolio of global innovation partners and a distribution footprint supported by all major distributors - includes Nutrien Ag, Elders, Lindsay Rural and Independent Rural stores.
Australia’s climate is tougher than ever. Heat spikes, dry periods, salinity, waterlogging and sudden frost events are becoming an everyday part of farmers lives.
Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
Find out why the first summer drench can be so important in protecting your flock’s health, plus what to look for in your summer drench of choice.
A NSW-based innovator has developed a patent-pending, front-mounted firefighting and utility system for tractors, giving farmers instant, in-cab-controlled fire suppression, water and fuel on hand, and safer solo operations.
Barko Security is bringing drone technology to agriculture while building on a decade of security and a lifetime of agricultural know-how.
